Berkey Avenue Mennonite Fellowship, Goshen, IN, focused a week of vacation Bible school on earth-friendly themes during July 2007. “Bible school is a great venue for emphasizing creation care because it takes place during warm weather and offers a more adaptable time frame than Sunday morning,” says Jennifer Schrock, who organized the event.

Children began the week by making God’s eyes, (a Mexican decoration using yarn and sticks) and discussing what the world might look like from the “God’s eye view” depicted in Biblical texts such as Genesis 1, Psalm 148 and Psalm 104. Throughout the week, teaching sessions contrasted a God’s eye view of food, of water, of humanity and of other creatures with the exploitive assumptions that human beings sometimes make.

Time outdoors was a significant part of each day. Groups explored the church’s backyard, met the animals on an organic farm, tested the water in a nearby river and visited a straw bale house and green building under construction.

Each child made a birdhouse out of a gourd and received a bug net to take home.

For a copy of the locally-grown curriculum Berkey Avenue put together, email jenniferhs@goshen.edu.